Beginnings
by Little Miss Flo
Summary: A series of one-shots, depicting my various imaginings of the ways Sam and Jack's relationship could have started, post-Threads.
1. Beginning 1

**Beginnings**

 **Summary:** This will be a series of one-shots, depicting my various imaginings of the ways Sam  & Jack's relationship could have started, probably all post-Threads. Each chapter will be a stand alone one-shot story. There probably won't be regular updates, I'll just write and post new ones as and when an idea grabs me.  
 **Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.

* * *

He didn't kiss her at the cabin.

She told herself she wasn't disappointed by that. She told herself it showed he respected her, and that he was giving her time to grieve for her father, and time to learn how to be herself again after the break-up of her disastrous relationship with Pete. She told herself he didn't want to be her rebound, and that he wanted to do it right.

She told herself all of these things right up until the night he was due to leave for Washington D.C., and she told herself this after he was gone, leaving her sitting on a sealed packing crate, lost, while Daniel and Teal'c loaded boxes into the rental truck to take to storage.

Then she told herself to quit lying before her nose grew long, and admitted she was pissed.

It took two weeks before she could get leave, but then she was on the first plane she could catch headed east. She got his address from Daniel, who handed it over without a word but with an infuriating knowing expression and a raised eyebrow that would have made Teal'c proud. In D.C. she took a cab straight to his apartment, slipped into the building as someone else was leaving, and was right outside his door ready to start pounding on it before she'd even stopped to consider whether this could be a monumentally bad idea.

Then she stood like that, fist raised, and paralysed with sudden fear and uncertainty, for a good five minutes.

She almost jumped out of her skin when his voice suddenly came from not more than an inch beyond the door.

"Generally speaking knocking is more effective when you make contact with the door." He said conversationally. "You should give it a try."

She dropped her raised fist, feeling foolish, and he opened the door, a slight smirk on his face, looking her up and down.

"Hi." He offered.

"Hi."

He raised his eyebrows when she didn't say anything else. "Do you want to come in?"

She nodded, and moved passed him quickly, breaking the trance she'd fallen into. _Crap, crap, crap. What am I doing here?_

"Can I get you anything? I haven't exactly unpacked yet. There's beer … and beer. Can I recommend the beer?"

"A beer would be great." She said, hoping she didn't sound as nervous as she felt.

"Relax Carter, I don't bite. Except on a full moon." He joked.

 _Damn, he noticed_. "Sorry, sir. I didn't exactly think this through." She admitted in a rush.

He raised an eyebrow at her, and withdrew a couple of bottles from the fridge, handing her one. "Oh? That's not like you."

She grimaced a bit. "No."

He gestured around him at the general chaos of manila boxes expansively. "There's a couch, somewhere, but I haven't actually laid eyes on it since I moved in. I do however have patio furniture on the balcony."

"Sounds good."

He led her through an obstacle course of boxes, and slid the glass door to the balcony open. The view was nothing spectacular – the balcony overlooked the apartment complex's large, grassy inner courtyard – but his apartment was on the top floor, and the sheer height lent it an air of privacy and peace.

He took a seat, and she perched on the other, crossing her legs and picking an imaginary bit of lint off of her jeans.

"Daniel called." He said suddenly, and she looked up to find him watching her carefully.

"He did?" She said.

"He said you're pissed at me."

Sam frowned. She _was_ , a little, but she'd never told Daniel that. She hadn't breathed a word of her recent inner turmoil to anyone.

"I never said anything of the sort." She argued.

"You didn't have to." He said. He paused for a moment, breaking their eye contact and starting to pick at the label on his bottle. "And then, after Daniel called, I got a letter from Teal'c."

"A letter?" Sam repeated incredulously, and lowered her voice to a whisper in deference to the open air. "Teal'c is on another planet, forming the free jaffa nation. He's sending you mail from the other side of the galaxy?"

"He sent it before he left." Jack said, as if this was obvious. She supposed it would have been, had her brain not been liquefied by her nerves.

"Anyway, they both think I made a tactical error." He continued.

She said nothing. She was just pissed enough at him that she wasn't going to help him along with this.

"They think I shouldn't have left without … _you know_. Without having a particular conversation with you."

"I assumed you had your reasons." She offered. _Damn it, I thought wasn't going to help_.

"I did. I thought it was the right call, with everything that happened. You can't rush these things. I was trying to be respectful, give you some space."

He sounded defensive now, and she sighed and leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes. She'd known that was what he would say, but it took the wind out of her ire somewhat to hear the words spoken.

"However … Daniel and Teal'c have both not-so-subtly informed me I was wrong. I assume you're here to tell me the same."

She opened her eyes, staring up at the stars. Or where the stars would be, were they not in the middle of a busy, glowing city awash with light pollution.

"I didn't want that much space." She admitted quietly.

"So I gather." She glanced over at him, to find him looking at her like a puzzle he didn't understand. "I'm sorry."

"It's just, when you left without saying anything, I thought …"

 _Oh God, no, don't cry._

He put his beer bottle down and pulled hers from her hand too, and suddenly she had a nose full of Jack as he wrapped his arms around her, cradling the back of her head and tucking his face into her neck. Despite her best efforts a sob escaped, and she hugged him back tightly as she furiously ordered her eyes to stop leaking tears.

"Shhh." He whispered. "It's ok. I'm sorry."

She calmed herself down and took some deep steadying breaths, before loosening her grip on him a little. He waited a few more moments before pulling back, and she realised that to hold her like that while she was sitting in her chair he'd been kneeling beside her.

"Sir, your knees …" She started to protest, but he waved her off, standing with a wince.

"It's fine. And I think under the circumstances you should quit calling me 'sir', don't you?"

She nodded, feeling a little raw. "I'm sorry for falling to pieces on you, I don't know what came over me."

"You've had a rough few weeks, hell, a rough few _years._ If anyone's entitled to fall apart now and then, it's you."

"Still … I honestly didn't come here to cry on your shoulder."

"I know." He smirked, with a self-deprecating air. "You came here to kick my ass."

She smiled self-consciously. "Why haven't you unpacked?"

He looked thrown by the sudden change of topic. "What?"

"All those boxes … isn't the mess driving you nuts?" As a military man Sam knew he'd had neatness drilled deep into his psyche.

"I've been putting it off." He admitted. "I don't like the apartment, but I didn't want to buy a house. Not until …" He broke off, and Sam's mouth opened in an 'o' of realisation.

She stood, and manoeuvred around the chair on the tiny balcony to stand directly in front of him, meeting his eye.

"Until what?" She asked, challengingly.

His gaze grew heated, and her eyes flickered briefly to his lips. She was baiting him, deliberately, but he didn't rise to it. "Careful, Carter."

"Why?" She asked quietly. "You transferred. You're not my CO anymore. So unless you really did leave without saying anything because you don't feel that way about me anymore …"

She broke off when his mouth suddenly descended on hers, and she found herself pressed against the wall, being kissed thoroughly, setting every nerve ending in her body on fire. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him back, but he stopped, just as suddenly as he'd started, leaning his forehead against hers and breathing hard.

"I want to do this right." He whispered. "That means _not_ taking you against the wall of my apartment ten minutes after you arrived."

She shivered in delicious appreciation of the mental image. "That's a shame." She whispered back.

He groaned, and leaned in further, resting his head against the wall over her shoulder and completely pinning her with his body. "You're evil. How did I never know you were evil?"

She grinned. "I hide it well, behind the techno-babble. But really, the motorcycle, and the speeding, and the lock-picking and the pool hustling, should have given you a clue."

He kissed her again, still passionately but slowly, as though he was trying to breathe her in. She felt like she was melting in his arms. When he ended it this time he looked at her intensely.

"I'm still going to do this right." He insisted.

She almost rolled her eyes. "Fine. Then I'd better go and find a hotel room."

"No – stay."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Probably not. But I don't want you to go."

"You said you haven't seen your couch since you moved in."

"I have a bed."

"Are you asking me to sleep with you, General?" She asked with a cheeky smile.

"I'm begging you to, Colonel." He replied, and the intensity in his eyes melted her all over again. "But just to sleep. We'll talk about this properly in the morning."

"Ok." She agreed, and let him lead her by the hand to his bedroom.

She changed in his bathroom, and when she entered his bedroom again he was already tucked under the covers in his t-shirt and boxers. He lifted his arm in invitation, and she very willingly climbed into the bed, tucking herself against his body and humming in pleasure as he held her firmly in place with his arm, his hand curled around her side and her breasts pressed against his chest. She hooked her knee over his, entwining their bare legs, and he groaned and squeezed her tighter for a moment.

"Damn, Carter." He whispered. "I didn't think this through."

She chuckled. "Hey, you were the one who said you wanted to take things slow and then invited – no _begged_ – me to stay in your bed."

"I think we both know I'm not the smart one in this relationship."

She smiled against his chest, a warm feeling in her heart. "So this is a relationship now?"

"Unless you just wanted me for my body." He joked.

She giggled, and reached up to kiss him, slowly and tenderly. When the kiss ended, she had completely lost her train of thought.

"I think I'll take that as a no." He said, eyes twinkling.

She smiled and tucked herself back against him contentedly. "Goodnight, Jack." She whispered.

He kissed the top of her head, holding her wrapped in his arms.

"Night Sam."


	2. Beginning 2

**Beginning 2  
**

 **Summary:** This is a series of one-shots, depicting my various imaginings of the ways Sam  & Jack's relationship could have started, probably all post-Threads. Each chapter will be a stand alone one-shot story. There probably won't be regular updates, I'll just write and post new ones as and when an idea grabs me.  
 **Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.  
 **Author's note:** This one went a bit dark - it deals with Jacob's death.

* * *

After the funeral, Jack drove Sam, Daniel and Teal'c back to his house. Her brother had made it clear she wasn't welcome at the wake being held for family, and she didn't feel any compulsion to be there anyhow. The wake General Hammond had hosted several days previously following the SGC's memorial service had been enough. She had said her goodbyes.

Jack installed her on the couch and put a glass of wine in her hand, while Daniel sat beside her and channel hopped, talking to her in a monologue while he tried to find something on the television that might hold her attention. Teal'c sat on her other side, silently, holding her hand.

She wondered idly why she felt so numb today, after this funeral. She had coped with the SGC memorial, and had made the expected amount of small talk at General Hammond's house afterwards. She hadn't been drained beyond functioning by that experience, so why this one?

After a few hours and several more glasses of the wine, Sam was dozing lightly on Daniel's shoulder, and he was completely asleep with his head lolling on the back of the sofa. Teal'c had taken himself off to the guest room, and Jack had gone to bed, leaving just the two of them watching a bad sci-fi movie.

She woke to find the movie had long since ended, and she turned off the TV and stood up, stretching her stiff muscles. She felt a little better now, the shock of the funeral had passed somewhat, and she decided to get some fresh air and climb up to the General's rooftop terrace.

Slipping out of the house silently, she went round to the side of the house and climbed the ladder. At the top, she was startled by the sight of the General, stargazing through his telescope.

"Sir!" She exclaimed. "I thought you were in bed."

"Couldn't sleep." He said idly, unruffled. Obviously he'd heard her coming.

She finished climbing up, and stood awkwardly, wondering if she should leave him in peace. He made the decision for her by patting the bench next to him, his eyes still not leaving the scope.

"Come and sit down."

She did, and watched him as he made an adjustment to the scope and then leaned back. "Look."

She looked, leaning across him a little to put her eye to the lens. The sight he had lined up was breathtaking. "It's beautiful."

"It's a clear night." He explained. "Perfect for stargazing."

She looked for another long moment, and then withdrew, leaning back. "Dad had a telescope." She said suddenly. "When I was little I used to beg him to take me out at night to this hill in the middle of nowhere to use it. You could get the best views from there – no light pollution."

She didn't know where the urge to share that memory had come from. It felt painful to say it, and sort of illicit – as though talking about her father in the past tense would kill him a little bit more.

She felt Jack looking at her, but didn't look back at him. She didn't want to see any pity in his eyes, and she knew she'd been a shameful wreck today.

He didn't speak, but after a moment he sat back next to her, and reached an arm around her, drawing her into his side. She went unresistingly, and settled her cheek against his shoulder with a sigh.

"It's ok to talk about him." He said softly. She froze, wondering how he'd read her mind.

"I've been there, Carter. I know." He said. She chuckled ruefully at his second successful guess at her thoughts, and relaxed again. Of course he knew.

"What happens now?" She asked after a few minutes.

"Now as in tonight, or now in general?"

"In general."

Jack took a deep breath, jostling her head on its perch. "I'm transferring to DC. General Hammond's retiring, they offered me his position."

Sam stared straight ahead, absorbing this fresh shock. "You hate politicians."

"Yes I do."

"You hate having a desk job."

"Yup."

"So why …?"

"It comes with perks."

"A pay rise and a parking spot at the Pentagon?"

"Not exactly the perks I meant. Although the extra star will be nice."

"You're being promoted?" She sat up now, and looked at him properly. "Congratulations."

He smiled a little, and looked at her for a long moment. "I won't be your commanding officer anymore." He said eventually, gently.

Her breath caught in her chest. "You mean …?"

"Yes."

"What about Kerry?"

He raised his eyebrows at her. "She broke up with me two weeks ago."

"I – I didn't know that."

"You had other stuff going on."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He pulled a blanket from a box under the bench, and draped it over them both. "Here, you're freezing."

She tucked it around her cold legs, and let him wrap his arm around her for warmth. "When?" She asked after a moment.

"Next Friday. Then I'm getting a week of downtime to move. I thought maybe I'd head up to the cabin for the first weekend."

"Fishing?"

"You wanna join me?"

She swallowed carefully. "You're asking me to go fishing? With you?"

"Yes."

"After your transfer out of the SGC is official?"

"Yes."

"And you broke up with Kerry."

"Technically she broke up with me, but, yes."

"And I broke up with Pete."

"Yes."

"So …"

"For crying out loud Carter, stop over-thinking it. I'm asking you if you want to come fishing with me."

"Yes."

"Yes? As in …?"

"Yes." She pulled back and looked at him. There was hope in his eyes.

"Well, good." He said, and pulled her back against him again. "I'll look forward to it."

She grinned, feeling a moment of genuine happiness that – for a moment – eclipsed the pain she'd been feeling that day. "So will I."


	3. Beginning 3 - Part One

**Beginning 3 - Part One  
**

 **Summary:** This is a series of one-shots, depicting my various imaginings of the ways Sam  & Jack's relationship could have started, probably all post-Threads. Each chapter will be a stand alone one-shot story. There probably won't be regular updates, I'll just write and post new ones as and when an idea grabs me.  
 **Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.

* * *

"You know sir, the cable company would fix this themselves for free if you asked them." Sam commented, studying the disassembled innards of the cable box on the General's table.

"Yeah, but then I'd have to make an appointment, and wait in all day for them, and if I have a choice between hanging out with a grumpy cable engineer, or hanging out with a hot blonde Air Force Colonel …" He nudged her teasingly.

She grinned, blushing. This was new, the flirting. They'd been in their respective new posts for a month, and in that time had talked more and talked more openly than they had in the whole year previously. They hadn't crossed the line from friends into something more yet, but there wasn't any rush. In the meantime, the flirting was fun, and new, and a promise of better things to come.

"You realise I won't have this fixed before the pizza arrives." She said.

"But the game …" He complained.

"A cable guy would have come during the day, rather than at 1900 on a Friday evening when his flight from Nevada landed." She pointed out teasingly.

"I guess you'll just have to entertain me with your wit and charm." He said.

"Or I could put you to work and teach you to fix this yourself."

"But then how can I use my broken electronics as a ploy to get you to come visit?"

"I guess you'll have to try enticing me here with _your_ wit and charm, instead." She suggested, grinning at him.

He held her gaze for a moment, his eyes flitting to her lips and back … and then the doorbell broke the tension.

"Can you get that, it'll be the pizza boy." He said. "I'll go get the beer and plates. Cash is on the table."

She stood, brushing her hands on her jeans, and walked out to the front hall of his D.C. townhouse, grabbing the notes on the hall table. She opened the door.

It wasn't the pizza delivery boy.

"Hello. I'm looking for Jonathan. I think I have his address right … is he here?"

It was an elderly lady, short and portly, in a flowery blouse and turquoise pantsuit.

"Jonathan …?" Sam asked, confused, thrown by the woman's sudden appearance when she'd been expecting a spotty teenager bearing junk food.

"Yes, Jonathan. Does he live here?"

"You don't mean Jack O'Neill by any chance, do you?"

"Oh goodness, is he still going by Jack? Whatever was wrong with the name I christened him with I will never understand. Fetch him for me, would you dear?" She said with a winning smile.

With a last, confused look at the old lady, who responded to her look with a shooing gesture, she went back to the kitchen in search of the General.

"Sir …"

"What's the matter, did they bring us pepperoni instead of meatballs again?" Jack asked, looking up from the bottle he was opening.

"It's not the pizza boy. I think it might be your mother."

Jack's expression instantly turned to one of alarm, and he abandoned the bottle, striding briskly past her out to the front hall.

" _Mother_?" He asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too Jonathan. Are you going to invite me in? Your girlfriend didn't. Seemed a bit dim-witted if you ask me; she didn't know your real name."

Sam, who could hear every word from the kitchen, choked on an indignant snort.

"Mother!" Jack exclaimed. "Firstly, she's not my girlfriend, and secondly, she's the most intelligent person you will ever have the good fortune to meet."

"If you say so, dear. Now, I'll need a bed for the night. Is your guest room habitable?"

"What are you _doing_ here?" Jack asked again.

"Why, I'm visiting you in your new home, of course. Isn't that obvious?"

"I don't recall inviting you."

"Jonathan, don't be rude."

Against her better judgement, Sam tentatively left the kitchen and rejoined Jack in the hall.

"Sir?" She asked. "Maybe I should go."

"No! No. You were invited, you're not going anywhere."

"Be a dear and fetch me a glass of wine." The General's mother told Sam, her tone one of gentle command.

"Mother!" Jack said, outraged. "Carter, I'm sorry, why don't you make yourself comfortable in the living room while I deal with this."

"It's alright sir, you were in the middle of fetching some drinks anyway, I'll just go and finish up."

Jack looked like he really, _really_ wanted to argue, but he let her go.

In the kitchen, Sam could hear Jack having a whispered argument with his mother, but could no longer hear what was said. She poured a glass of wine from an open bottle, and then after a moment of indecision poured a second for herself. For some reason she didn't want to drink beer in front of the older woman. She put the drinks on a tray and carried them to the living room, where Jack's mother was now perusing the photographs on his mantle.

"Doesn't Cassandra look grown up now." She exclaimed. Sam looked at Jack with raised eyebrows, questioning. He shook his head, indicating that no, his mother had never actually met Cassie.

"Here's your drink, Mrs O'Neill." Sam said politely.

"Ah, marvellous, thank you my dear. Jonathan, are you planning on introducing me to your lady friend?"

"I'm Samantha, Mrs O'Neill. Samantha Carter." She set the drinks tray down on Jack's coffee table.

"A pleasure to meet you Miss Carter, I'm Martha. And are you sleeping with my son?"

There was a clatter as in shock she fumbled the beer bottle she'd been about to pick up to pass to Jack, and she stabilised it back on the table quickly. Jack clapped his hands over his face in embarrassment, and Sam cleared her throat, turning bright red.

"No, Mrs O'Neill, I'm not."

She handed Jack his beer, and he lowered his hands and looked at her with an expression of sincere apology. She raised her eyebrows and smiled slightly in response.

"I'm going to book you a hotel." Jack said to his mother.

"Don't be silly, I'll sleep in your guest room."

"Mother, I wasn't expecting you. You can't have the guest room."

"I'm sure before your young lady goes home the two of you can prepare the room for me." Mrs O'Neill argued.

"Sam isn't going home, she's staying the night. In the guest room." Jack said pointedly.

"Sir, really, I could just –"

"You're not leaving." Jack cut her off, tone brooking no argument.

Sam stepped close to him, whispering under her breath. "Sir, you can't turn away your mother in the middle of the night. She's an old lady. I'll just get a cab to the Hamilton, I'm sure they'll have a room."

The doorbell rang, and they both belatedly remembered the pizza they had actually been expecting.

"I'll get it." Sam said. She opened the door and smiled at the pizza boy, handing him the cash and taking the two pizza boxes off his hands.

"Mother, I am not having sex with Sam!" The furious shout came from the direction of the living room. Sam froze, eyes locked with the teenaged delivery boy who looked terrified.

"Have a nice evening." She said with a forced cheery smile, and shut the door.

She carried the pizza into the kitchen, and a moment later Jack stormed in, incensed. "She won't leave." He said.

"I'll go." Sam said firmly. "Let her have the guest room. She's your mother."

"I wanted you to stay."

"I know." She smiled at him, sweetly. "I'll come back tomorrow and finish fixing your cable."

"It wasn't about the cable."

"I know, Jack." She said, making him look at her intensely at her unusual use of his first name. "I'll come back tomorrow."

Jack took a deep breath and blew it out. "Our evening would have been a lot more fun than the one I'll have with her."

Sam grinned. "I bet it would." She kissed him on the cheek, hearing his sharp intake of breath at the gesture, and she smiled at him once more before leaving.

"Goodnight Mrs O'Neill, it was a pleasure to meet you." She said as she passed the living room.

"Goodbye dear. Drive safely." The old woman called, causing Jack to break out into a fresh round of grumblings along the lines of 'she's not driving, you put her out onto the street'.

Outside, Sam wrapped her coat around herself tightly, and perched on the wall at the end of the General's front garden. She fished out her cellphone, and called a cab.

Two hours later, Sam was nowhere closer to finding a bed for the night. It had turned out there was a convention in town, and not a single hotel had a room available for a last minute patron. She had been driving round in a taxi from hotel to hotel, running up a hundred dollar bill, and she was out of cash, out of patience, and out of ideas. So, she found herself ending the journey right back where she started, on the General's doorstep.

She got out her cellphone and rang his number, hoping she wouldn't wake the elderly Martha O'Neill in doing so. He answered almost immediately.

"Carter?"

"Hi sir. I'm really sorry to do this to you, but I couldn't find a hotel room, there's a convention in town. I'm at your front door."

"Hang on."

He hung up, and she stowed her cellphone away. A moment later the door opened, and he appeared, dishevelled in his pyjamas, and beckoned her in.

She took off her boots and he took her coat, and she dropped her bag back down. "I'm sorry about this sir." She whispered.

"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let my mother run you off." He replied, equally quietly.

"Can I sleep on your couch?"

"I don't have any spare blankets. Just come with me."

She picked up her bag and followed him as he walked back to his bedroom. He shut the door behind them both. "Sir?" She asked uncertainly.

"Lose the sir, Sam. Let's just go to sleep."

"Together?"

He smiled slightly at her. "I promise I'll be a perfect gentleman."

"But what will your mother think?"

"Whatever she damn well likes. She already thinks we're sleeping together, anyway."

"But sir – Jack – I don't want things to be … I mean I want us to …" She broke off, struggling to express what she wanted to say.

He moved towards her, his eyes gentle. "What is it Sam?"

"I want to do this right." She said, taking courage from his expression.

Jack looked at her for a long moment, and then slowly raised his hands to her face, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs, and leaned in to kiss her softly. It was perfect, and she forgot to breathe.

"I was planning on doing that for the first time this evening after dinner." Jack told her.

"Oh." She breathed.

"I love you, but I'm not planning any funny business tonight. It's the middle of the night, and you need a place to crash. Get in the bed."

Sam looked at him for a moment in wonder. She hadn't heard anything after 'I love you'.

"What?" He asked after she had stood there for a moment just staring at him.

"I love you too." She said simply.

He grinned at her, and kissed her again, deeply. "Get in the bed." He repeated fondly.


	4. Beginning 3 - Part Two

**Beginning 3 - Part Two  
**

 **Summary:** This is a series of one-shots, depicting my various imaginings of the ways Sam  & Jack's relationship could have started, probably all post-Threads. Each chapter will be a stand alone one-shot story. There probably won't be regular updates, I'll just write and post new ones as and when an idea grabs me.  
 **Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.  
 **Author's note:** This one is not a new Beginning, it's a continuation of the previous one. Mrs Martha O'Neill took up residence in my brain and started pulling strings. Dance, puppet, dance!

* * *

Sam woke at dawn the next morning with the warm, indulgent feeling of a man's body wrapped around hers. She lay still for a moment, enjoying it, and then turned in Jack's arms to look at him. He was clearly partially awake himself, as he reacted by pulling her closer again and kissing her forehead.

"Good morning." She whispered.

"Morning." He responded, and opened his eyes, blinking at her with a satisfied smile.

"I'm glad all the hotels were full." Sam said, stretching languorously.

Jack's hand glided over her taut stomach as she stretched. "Not half as glad as I am."

The moment was broken by a crash from the kitchen, causing them both to sit bolt upright.

"What was that?" Sam asked warily.

"I don't know." Jack leapt out of bed and was out the door with the fluid, casual speed of a big cat, and Sam hurried to follow.

"Mother, what the hell are you doing?" Jack's exclamation reached her before she caught up with him.

She arrived in the kitchen to the sight of the elderly Mrs Martha O'Neill perched atop a chair, reaching into the back of the top shelf of one of Jack's cupboards.

"I can't find your rosemary." Mrs O'Neill complained.

"Why do you need rosemary at six-thirty in the morning?" Jack asked incredulously.

"I'm finding out what you have so I'll know what to buy when I go shopping for our dinner this evening." She explained, as thought it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Get down from there, you'll fall and break something."

"Don't you worry about my old bones, Jonathan."

"It's not your bones I'm worried about." He muttered under his breath as he started picking up the stack of pans she'd knocked over a few minutes earlier.

"Let me help you down, Mrs O'Neill." Sam said, offering the elderly lady her hand.

After a moment of awkward clambering aided by Sam, she had both feet back on the ground again. Then she fixed Sam with a piercing stare.

"I thought you went home." She said accusingly.

"I was going to try and find a hotel room for the night, but unfortunately they were all booked up." Sam explained. "I had to come back here."

"If you hadn't turned up unannounced and stolen her bed for the night, she would have been staying here anyway." Jack said, setting the stack of pots back where they belonged.

"Goodness, if I'd known it was going to be this much trouble I wouldn't have bothered coming to visit you."

"It just would have been nice to have some warning." Jack said tiredly.

Sam noticed Martha giving her another suspicious stare, and she crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously. In the rush to find the source of the crashing sound, she'd forgotten her camisole top left little to the imagination.

"Where did you sleep?" Martha asked her.

"Mind your own business Mother." Jack said. "Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Yes please dear. Two sugars."

"I'm going to go and get dressed." Sam said, and fled back to the bedroom.

Fifteen minutes later she exited Jack's bathroom, dressed for the day, and found Jack himself in the bedroom waiting for her.

"She's cleaning my windowsills." He said resignedly.

Sam grinned at him. "How is it that I've known you eight years, and not once has it come up that you still have a living mother?"

"You might have noticed that she and I don't exactly get along."

"I think she's sweet, in a bossy-old-lady sort of way."

Jack harrumphed.

"Anyway, if you still want me to stick around, I'm gonna go and finish fixing your cable box." She said.

"Thanks Carter." He said sincerely. "I know this wasn't exactly what you had in mind for this weekend."

"We've survived worse." She teased, and left him there, heading back to her half-finished repair job in the living room.

She had just got properly stuck in when Mrs O'Neill swept in with her cleaning products.

"What on Earth are you doing, Samantha?" She asked after a moment of watching.

"Jack's cable box was broken. I'm fixing it for him." She explained with a smile.

"You should call a handy man to fix that for you. You'll ruin your eyes." Mrs O'Neill remarked imperiously. "I don't know how you can understand all those machine innards anyway, it just looks like a big mess to me."

"Fixing things has always been a hobby of mine." Sam said.

"It's a man's job, fixing things. Although I don't recall Jonathan ever showing a particular interest in electronics."

"He doesn't need to, I always fix anything of his that breaks."

"Do you now?" Mrs O'Neill said thoughtfully, studying Sam. "How long exactly have the two of you been together?"

"Oh, we're not … I mean we weren't …" She floundered, because the words 'we're just friends' weren't strictly true anymore, not after their professions of love the previous night.

Mrs O'Neill's eyes narrowed. "I know I'm just a doddery old woman, Samantha, but I am familiar with the concept of 'friends with benefits'."

"Oh no, we're definitely not that." Sam insisted immediately, eyes wide.

"I find all this modern thinking quite trying, sometimes." The elderly woman continued, as though she hadn't heard Sam. She started cleaning the living room's window frame as she talked. "In my day, a man and woman didn't sleep together unless they were married, and sometimes not even then. You certainly wouldn't find a man and woman sharing a bed if they weren't even in a loving relationship. The men fixed the broken household items, and the women cooked and cleaned. But … I understand that times change. New times, new morals, new gender roles … it's just difficult to keep abreast of it."

Sam set down her screwdriver, sitting up straight and frowning nervously. "Mrs O'Neill, I think you've gotten the wrong impression about my relationship with your son."

Mrs O'Neill looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Oh?"

"I love him. We haven't … been _together_ … but I've loved him for a very long time. And I've never shared a bed with him before last night, and last night it was only because there wasn't a single hotel room available in the entire city and you … well, I was supposed to be sleeping in the guest room. It was either Jack's bed or the floor, and while I would have been open to sleeping on the floor, Jack convinced me to just sleep in the bed with him, because _he_ loves _me_ too."

The smirk that suddenly appeared on Martha O'Neill's face was such a _Jack_ expression that Sam was momentarily stunned. She hadn't seen the resemblance before.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it dear." She resumed cleaning. "You know that to a certain extent I'm only busting your chops to make sure you're good enough for him, hmm?"

Sam gaped at her. "Ok." She said slowly.

"I'm not going to be around forever, and after that awfulness with Sarah and little Charlie … well, I just want to be sure my boy is not going to grow old alone."

"He won't. I can promise you that." Sam said.

She saw Mrs O'Neill's gaze flicker upwards from her to the living room door, and she looked over her shoulder to see Jack standing there, giving her a soft, happy look. He came over and perched on the table she was working at, and leaned down to kiss her. Distantly she was aware of Mrs O'Neill harrumphing and muttering as she left the room, but as Jack's lips gently captured hers the kiss demanded her sole attention.

"I could get used to that." She whispered breathlessly when Jack pulled back.

"Was she giving you a hard time?" Jack asked.

"Not really. Although I think maybe she thinks I'm a bad influence on you." She said with a grin.

" _You_ a bad influence on _me_?"

"I slept in your bed out of wedlock and I don't let you fix your own electronics."

"I get grouchy when I electrocute myself. No one wants that."

Sam chuckled. "I'm almost done here." She said, turning back to the cable box.

"Ok. I'll go and see what the old crone wants to do today."

"Be nice." Sam scolded him, smiling.

* * *

They spent the day sightseeing in D.C., at Martha O'Neill's behest. Jack looked utterly bored, but Sam found it surprisingly interesting. She'd never really done the tourist thing in Washington D.C., despite having lived in the city for several years when she was younger.

She rapidly lost enthusiasm for the outing though, when Mrs O'Neill insisted they visit Arlington cemetery. Her father had been buried there not two months previously, and she wasn't yet at peace with it enough to be comfortable visiting his grave.

Jack tried to talk his mother out of it without highlighting Sam's situation, but the woman was a force of nature and would not be dissuaded.

"You don't have to come." Jack said to Sam quietly when it was clear he was getting nowhere with his mother.

Sam thought about it for a moment, and then took a deep breath and nodded. "I'll meet you back at your place later."

Jack gave her a quick hug, and she left them to it.

* * *

"You know your grandfather is buried here."

"I know, ma." Jack said. They stood side by side, looking out at the sea of uniform white gravestones.

"Why did Samantha leave so suddenly? I would have thought that as a military woman herself she'd want to pay her respects."

"Her father was buried here very recently." He said with a sigh. "It's still raw. She's not comfortable being here yet."

"They were close?"

"Yeah, they were. He was a good man."

He saw his mother studying him out of the corner of his eye. "You knew him?"

"We worked together. He was an Air Force General."

"I wish you had told me about Samantha's father before we came here. I didn't intend to chase her away."

"She's a very private person, and she didn't want to make a fuss."

"I shall have to apologise and offer my condolences when we catch up with her again later."

Jack looked at her in mild surprise. "I'm sure she'd appreciate that."

"Well, a mother must stay on good terms with the woman her son intends to marry."

Jack blinked. "Sam and I aren't engaged."

"Maybe not yet, but you will be." Martha waved a hand airily, as though it was a foregone conclusion.

"You met her yesterday. How could you possibly know that?"

"Are you saying I'm wrong?"

Jack looked away. "You're not wrong."

"Well then. As I said."

Jack chuckled. "I just didn't realise I was that transparent."

"You and I may not spend a lot of time together these days, Jonathan, and we may not always see eye to eye. But I'm still the woman who raised you. I know when you're smitten."

"For crying out loud, mother, I'm a General. General's don't get ' _smitten_ '." Jack protested. Then his voice softened. "I just love her, is all. Always have and always will."

Mrs O'Neill took a deep breath, and then pulled a ring from her finger.

"This is the ring your grandfather gave your grandmother – my mother – when he proposed to her in 1927. My mother wanted it passed down the family line from mother to daughter – but of course you don't have any sisters, and you never had any daughters either." She pressed the ring into his hand. "I want you to give it to Samantha, when the time comes. You don't have to propose with it, I know the setting is probably a bit old fashioned, but I want her to have it when she's your wife."

Jack gaped, completely at a loss for words.

"Close your mouth, dear, or you'll catch flies."

Jack swallowed hastily. "Thank you, mother. I don't know what to say."

"I never liked your Sara very much I'm afraid. It didn't feel right to give it to her. But I think I'll get on famously with your Samantha."

"Why don't you give it to her yourself, you know, when the time comes?"

"I'd rather you did it." Martha said simply.

Jack didn't question it. He tucked the ring securely into his wallet. "Thank you." He said again.

"You're welcome. Now for goodness' sake let's get out of this wind."

* * *

Three weeks later, at a hotel in Nevada, Jack held Sam against his chest after making love to her. "So, are you bored of me yet, Mrs O'Neill?"

Sam snorted. "Please Jack, Mrs O'Neill is your mother. I am and always will be a Carter … even though I'm married to you now." She grinned and kissed him.

Jack smiled back, and then reached over to his nightstand, fishing around in the drawer. "You just reminded me, I have something for you."

"Oh?"

"It's from my mother, actually."

"I thought you said you didn't tell her about the wedding."

"I didn't, the only people who know are Daniel, Teal'c, Cassie and Hammond. But she gave this to me during our day out in Washington, the day after she met you."

He opened the ring box, and Sam gasped. "It's beautiful."

"It was my grandmother's engagement ring. My grandmother wanted it passed down the family line, mother to daughter, but my mother didn't have any daughters. Anyway, she asked me to give it to you when I married you."

Sam stared at him. "Really?"

He nodded.

"That's … an incredible gift." She thought for a moment. "Wait - she gave this to you, to give to me, the day after she met me? When our relationship was less than 24 hours old?"

"I think we made it pretty clear we'd been in love a lot longer than 24 hours. And she likes you."

"She likes me? I thought she hated me."

"Nah. She likes to give you a hard time for sport, but she likes you, she told me so."

Sam smiled at him, and slipped the ring onto her finger. "It fits." She slipped it off again and put it back in the box. "We'll have to go visit her."

Jack groaned and clapped his hands over his face. "Really? Do we have to?"

"I want to say thank you in person. And you'll have to break the news that you got married and didn't invite her."

"Hey, you get equal blame for that one."

Sam grinned. "Yeah, but you're her son. And she likes me."

Jack groaned again. "Fine. The next time we get a free weekend we'll go to Chicago."

"Thank you Jack." Sam slid her body against his as she moved to kiss him again, and suddenly the concession seemed very worth it indeed.


	5. Beginning 4

**Beginning 4**

 **Summary:** This is a series of one-shots, depicting my various imaginings of the ways Sam  & Jack's relationship could have started, post-Threads.  
 **Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.

* * *

Daniel slapped the heel of his hand to his forehead in exasperation. "Jack, I am not having this conversation with you again. I have a life of my own, you know. Either get a dog and move on with your life, or buy a plane ticket to Nevada. Just stop whining about it to me."

With that, he slammed the phone back into its perch on the wall of his office with a little more force than was strictly necessary, and took a deep breath.

He felt a little guilty, in the immediate aftermath. Jack hadn't _strictly speaking_ been whining about the state of his love life – or lack thereof. It had, however, been the clear subtext of every conversation they had had since Jack had moved to Washington DC a month earlier. He honestly didn't know why the hell the man couldn't hop a flight to Area 51 and just have the long-overdue conversation with Sam.

It didn't help that for every frustrating phone call from Jack, he'd had another equally frustrating call from Sam. Sometimes it really sucked being best friend to both of them. He missed Teal'c. And Janet.

He sighed and turned back to his work. As his departure to Atlantis was still a few weeks away, fresh files and referrals were still landing on his desk fairly regularly. The one he had been working on before Jack's call was asking for a recommendation on which team would be best suited to taking over the mantle of trade negotiations with Okara, or P8R 112.

Although it was an annual affair, Daniel himself had not been present for the previous renewal of the trade deal, and it had been Jonas Quinn who had struck the deal in the first place. Unfortunately, the Okarans were a people who disliked new faces – they liked continuity, and negotiating with the people they had built a rapport and a foundation of trust with previously. In the scheduled contact a few months ago they had been very reluctant to allow Daniel to take over preparations for this renewal ceremony – as Jonas was currently unavailable – and now with Teal'c, Sam and Jack all gone from the SGC and his own imminent departure, he would have to convince them to accept a whole new team.

Or would he? He cocked his head with a frown, and checked his calendar. He would, in fact, still be on Earth at the time the trade renewal was scheduled to take place. He could just re-arrange his schedule and do it himself. And if _he_ was doing it …

He laughed out loud. "Payback's a bitch."

* * *

"Remind me again why _I'm_ here?" Jack griped in the elevator on the way to the gate room.

It was 0400, the base was relatively quiet, and Daniel, Sam and Jack were headed out to P8R 112 for the trade deal renewal ceremony.

Daniel would have been having _so_ much more fun with this if it hadn't been stupid-o'clock in the morning. He needed more coffee before he was up to ribbing.

"Because the mine on Okara yields the second biggest output of naquadah of any planet that we currently have a trade deal with, and we need them." Daniel said tiredly.

"So remind me again why _I …_ " Jack started again, before Daniel cut him off.

" _Because_ they distrust new people. We need the trade deal, so we need to keep them happy, and the way to do that is to send the same team for the renewal ceremony that negotiated the deal in the first place. It's already bad enough that Jonas and Teal'c aren't available, we don't want to piss them off any more than necessary."

It was the truth … although he didn't seriously believe they would have gone as far as reneging on the trade deal if they'd sent a different team.

"I thought you'd be happy to get out in the field again, sir." Sam said.

"Sure, if it actually was 'the field'." He said, doing air quotes with his fingers. "This, however, is going to be even more boring than the budget meetings I was supposed to be attending."

The elevator ride ended, and they filed into the gate room, and found General Hank Landry waiting for them.

"Dial it up, Walter." The General called, before turning to Jack as the dialling sequence began.

"Don't have too much fun out there, Jack." Landry said, with a grin that said he knew exactly how tedious the trade renewal ceremony was going to be.

"Oh, don't you worry, Hank. I won't." Jack said with a sarcastic smile.

* * *

A glance to his left told him that Jack and Sam were safely occupied in a conversation with some Okaran officials, and so Daniel approached the Governor, Josen, with a respectful bow of his head.

"Governor Josen, I wonder if I might discuss the arrangements for the Contemplation with you?" He asked.

The Contemplation was the real bear of this ceremony. Six hours of being sequestered in what amounted to a hotel room, during which they were expected to engage in quiet reflection. In reality, SG-1 had in the past spent the time playing cards, bickering, and getting bored beyond belief.

"We have a room prepared for you." The Governor assured him.

"Ah, actually that's what I wanted to discuss with you. Would it be possible for us to have two rooms – one for General O'Neill and Colonel Carter, and one for myself?"

Josen cocked his head, blinking owlishly. "I suppose that could be arranged … may I ask why? You have never required this before."

"It's a little delicate." Daniel said with a big fake smile. "General O'Neill and Colonel Carter are, well … _courting_ I believe is the term you would use, and in our culture it would be improper for me to share such a small space with them given the current status of their relationship."

At some point over the last eight years, he'd learned to convincingly lie through his teeth. He was pretty sure it was Jack's fault, somehow, and so he felt completely justified in wielding that weapon at Jack's expense. Sam was collateral damage.

"Oh." The Governor looked a little taken aback. "I see, well, in that case …"

Daniel frowned when the Governor didn't seem inclined to finish the sentence, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

"Governor Josen?" He prompted.

"This is a little awkward." The Governor told him in a careful undertone. "You see, in Okara, a courting couple would never be without a chaperone."

Well. So much for that plan.

"Ah, well, don't worry about it then." Daniel said with a genial smile, trying to walk it back. "I'll just stay with them. This is your world, and your ceremony, after all. We should abide by your code of conduct."

"Are you quite certain?" Josen asked, looking worried.

"Of course, Governor. It's not a problem. I hope you will forgive me for bringing it up."

"Certainly." Josen gave the typical Okaran head-bow.

Daniel sighed. So, he couldn't get Sam and Jack locked in a hotel room alone for six hours. He'd just have to go to Plan B, and use those six hours to make them talk.

* * *

"Daniel, what the _hell_ is going on?" Jack demanded, his voice loud and grating.

Daniel was sitting on one of the low couches in their Contemplation chamber with Sam, where they had been waiting on Jack. A cluster of officials had whisked Jack away an hour earlier, saying they needed to prepare him for the ceremony. They hadn't thought much of it, after all Jack was the one who would sign the trade deal renewal document on behalf of Earth. It stood to reason they may want to give him some information about the proceedings before getting underway.

The wardrobe change was a bit of a surprise though.

There was a small, strangled noise from Sam on his left, as if she was stifling a snigger of laughter. Daniel just gaped.

"Nice outfit?" He offered after a moment.

Jack was bare-chested, but had a long, flowing, open white robe draped over his shoulders that swept all the way down to the floor, and bright yellow billowing pants secured tightly at his waist.

"I distinctly remember keeping my uniform _on_ , last time." Jack said murderously. "What did you do?"

"Why do you assume it's my fault?" Daniel asked, adopting an injured tone.

"Because, Danny-boy, our good friend the _Governor_ is under the impression that Carter and I are _betrothed_."

"What?" Sam sat up straight.

"Be-betrothed?" Daniel managed.

"As in 'engaged to be married'. Apparently on this planet men who are about to skip down the aisle have to wear these ridiculous outfits. Some cultural nonsense. Now, I'm going to ask you one more time, and this time you're going to answer. What the _fucking hell_ did you do?"

"Oh boy." Daniel muttered, and took off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ok. I may have spoken to Josen to ask if we could – that is, that _I_ could have a separate Contemplation room from you guys. I told him you were courting and that in our culture it was improper for me to share a small space with you."

"Why would you do that?" Sam exclaimed, furious.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "You really have to ask? I was trying to get the two of you to spend some time alone together."

"You little …" Jack broke off with a violent gesture. "We're on a _mission_ , Daniel! Weren't you just telling us how this trade deal was incredibly important for us? Isn't that why _we're_ here in the first place instead of a normal team?! What on Earth possessed you to jeopardise the mission like that?"

"The trade deal isn't at risk." Daniel said with a dismissive gesture. "I was very careful not to offend anyone."

"You're offending me!" Jack yelled.

Daniel saw Sam flinch out of the corner of his eye, and glared at Jack. "Look, I'm sorry about the outfit. I certainly never said that you guys were engaged. I just floated the idea of separate rooms and then backed right off when Josen seemed reluctant."

Sam stood suddenly and stalked away from them both. Jack didn't waver in his unrelenting scowl at Daniel.

"You better hope that the clothes are the extent of the fallout from this." Jack seethed.

Daniel huffed. So much for Plan B.

* * *

The door was locked when the Contemplation began. Six long hours stretched ahead of them.

Sam settled down in a corner and set about cleaning her weapon. Jack slumped down in a chair in his loose, flouncy clothes, and scowled at the room. Daniel pulled out some reading material and did his best to ignore them both.

It was the longest six hours of his life.

* * *

"Oh!" Sam exclaimed softly, as they entered the main ceremonial chamber. "I just realised, on our last trip here, I saw some guys dressed in robes like yours. They were in this room, around the edge. I thought they were servants, or something."

"So now I'm a servant?" Jack hissed at Daniel.

"No, I'm sure … I mean, you're a guest here. Even if they have the betrothed men from their own culture work as servants, I'm sure they'll make an exception for you."

"You'll forgive me if I don't take your word for it." Jack retorted snarkily. "Considering this is entirely your fault."

Daniel huffed a little. "I said I was sorry."

"General O'Neill." Josen hurried over, and gestured the three of them towards a side room. "We must be quick, usually we have more time to prepare …"

Daniel frowned at that – the Okarans had known they were coming for weeks.

"Please place your hand here." Josen grabbed Jack's hand and pushed it firmly onto a yellow glowing panel. "And take this token." He clasped a bracelet around Jack's wrist before Jack could retract the hand. It gripped his arm firmly, skin-tight and immovable.

"Is this for the ceremony?" Daniel asked warily.

"Yes, yes, for the ceremony." Josen answered, reaching now for Sam's hand.

"I don't recall this being a part of the ceremony last time …" Sam said as Josen pressed her hand to the glowing panel.

"It is different this time."

"Different _how_?" Jack asked pointedly. "Different like I'm wearing these robes, or different like you've updated your trade renewal practices? And what are these bracelet things?" He asked, eyeing the one Josen was snapping into place on Sam's wrist.

"It will become clear during the ceremony." Josen said with a serene smile.

Daniel stepped forward, expecting the governor to seize his hand too, but Josen merely gave him a bemused look and led them back out of the room.

Jack glared at Daniel. Daniel nodded sheepishly and sped up to catch Josen's arm.

"Governor Josen, I really must insist that we have a little more information about what just happened. What did you just do with that panel, what are those bracelets, and why did you do that to Sam and Jack but not me?"

Josen sighed, impatiently. "You told me they were courting. That is the preparation required for the ceremony for a couple who are courting."

"We're not …" Sam started, but Daniel cut her off with a sharp gesture.

"It's a _trade renewal_ ceremony." Jack interjected before Daniel could organise his thoughts into another attempt. "What does courting have to do with it?"

"It is much more than merely a trade renewal ceremony!" Josen said with a wide, excited smile. "It's our Festival of Life! It encompasses all manner of official ceremonies. The next couple of hours will involve not only renewing our trade deal with your people, but also officially registering new babies as citizens of Okara, coming of age rituals, funerary acknowledgements for those who have passed, marriages, and of course, courting confirmations." He gestured between Sam and Jack. "If you will excuse me, I must go and continue the preparations. I will fetch you shortly for the ceremony."

Daniel watched him go with an uncomfortable feeling of helpless dread, like he was watching a train crash in slow motion. Jack was glaring at him again. " _Daniel_."

"I know, I know, I'm _sorry._ " He said in exasperation. "But really, you guys are partly to blame for this."

"Excuse me?" Sam rounded on him, outraged.

" _Nowhere_ , in any of your mission reports, was it mentioned that the Okaran trade renewal ceremony was _more_ than just a trade renewal ceremony."

"We didn't know!" Jack protested.

"Didn't any of you ask any questions?" Daniel asked. "What the hell was Jonas doing?"

"He wasn't _you_ , Daniel, he had a different focus, he brought different skills to the team." Sam said. "We all had to try and pick up the slack from you being gone."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Fine, then this is my fault for trying to get the two of you some alone time, _and_ my fault for _dying_."

He'd gone too far, Sam looked like he'd slapped her. She gave him a watery-eyed glare and stalked away.

"You're a real ass sometimes, you know." Jack said in a surprisingly calm tone, watching Sam walk away.

"Yeah, I know. I'll apologise." He sighed.

"What the hell did you think you were doing, anyway? Carter and I don't need 'alone time'."

Daniel raised his eyebrows incredulously. "You really want to talk about this now?"

Jack just looked at him.

"Alright, fine, I'll say it. You and Sam have been in love for years, and now you finally have a chance to do something about it, but instead you're both calling me constantly and griping about anything and everything else, when the clear subtext is that you're frustrated that nothing's happening between you."

There was a long moment of silence, and then Jack looked away.

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"How terrible for you." Jack said with snark.

"I mean, for the love of God, Jack, what exactly are you waiting for?"

"She just lost her Dad. And she was engaged not five minutes ago, if you recall."

"It's been nearly a month."

"I'm giving her space."

"I don't think she wants it."

"Hey, she knows where DC is." Jack said defensively.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Jack, I don't think she's sure you even still care."

Jack started at that. "What?"

"This is _Sam_ we're talking about. She's the smartest person I've ever known, but she makes up for it in her love life. I mean, what did you think Pete was about?"

"I honestly haven't the faintest idea."

"Trust me, she loves you, but she is not going to be the one to make the first move. She's been shot down one too many times. It's got to be you."

He watched Jack mull that over.

"You're right." Jack said eventually. "She's tried to tell me before. Three times, actually. I cut her off every time. Well, the last time wasn't _me_ so much as Kerry interrupting, but still …"

Daniel nodded. "Which is why I was trying to trap you in a room together for six hours. I wanted you to just _talk_ to each other."

Jack groaned and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Alright, I get the point."

"So you'll talk to her?"

"Assuming we survive whatever this is about," he waggled his gaudy bracelet at Daniel, "sure, I'll talk to her."

Daniel smiled. "Good."

* * *

"So, I've been asking around." Daniel said, watching the expressions on Jack and Sam's faces carefully. "The good news is, you're definitely not getting married."

"Outstanding." Jack said sarcastically.

"So what _are_ we doing?" Sam asked, fidgeting with the skin-tight metal bracelet firmly clamped about her wrist.

"From what I can figure out, it's sort of like a trial run. The idea is two people who want to date seriously would go through this ritual in front of their friends and family, and then for a short time would live as though they were married, in order to learn whether or not they're compatible for a more long-term commitment."

"We're going home after the ceremony." Jack pointed out.

"Right, so this really isn't a big deal because they won't know whether you're living together or not." Daniel said. "Although, if you're after an opinion …"

"Can it, Daniel." Jack said sharply.

"What about these?" Sam asked, indicating the bracelets.

Daniel shifted his weight uncomfortably. "That I'm less sure of. The people I spoke to said that after the ceremony, the bracelets are a symbol of the courtship, but they also alluded to the bracelets themselves causing a bond between the participants which supposedly helps them to make the decision about whether they are compatible."

"What _kind_ of bond?" Jack asked, voice low and dangerous. Sam shot him a nervous look.

"I'm not sure, they said it was difficult to describe in words. They just said it connected you somehow. But," he added quickly, "they also said that after the ceremony the bracelets can be easily removed by any official here at your request, and that the bond would disappear as soon as the bracelets are removed, so I really don't see it being too much of an issue."

His former team mates didn't look convinced, and Daniel sighed in exasperation. "Look, you can keep being mad at me about this if you want, but I really think you should look at it as an opportunity."

They both shot him incredulous looks.

"Maybe you'll learn something." He said with a smirk, and stalked off to find the facilities.

* * *

It was easy to see how he'd missed the multi-purpose nature of the festival before, Jack thought as he reluctantly trailed behind Carter. There were different rooms for different ceremonies – the trade renewal had been held in one, at a brisker pace than it had been in the past, and then they'd been immediately chivvied out and down this long corridor after Josen. He caught glimpses of other ceremonies going on through open doors as they walked.

"Colonel Carter, if you would go with Lorenne, she will see you properly attired." Josen said, gesturing to a short girl in a simple tunic and pants. Carter shot a surreptitious glare in Daniel's direction, before following the girl wordlessly. Personally, Jack thought she had got off lightly, if the girl's clothing was anything to go by. He tugged his robe closer over his bare chest self-consciously.

"Tell me again why we can't just beg off?" Jack muttered to Daniel as Josen went to have a conversation with someone at the door of the room they'd stopped outside.

"The Okarans are a very sensitive people. If we tell them I lied, or try to back out, we risk offending them, and I don't have to tell you –"

"We need them. Right." Jack scrubbed a hand over his face. He really hoped this would be painless, and he and Carter could get the hell out of dodge with their dignity intact.

"General O'Neill?" Josen called, and Jack allowed himself to be ushered into the room. It was big – huge, really – and lined with people, men on one side, all dressed in the same white robe and billowing yellow pants as Jack, and on the other side …

 _Woah_.

"Sam's going to kill me." Daniel groaned. Privately Jack thought it might be worth it to see her in one of _those_ outfits. It was little more than a bikini and a sort of wrap-around short filmy skirt, in the same white and yellow colour scheme.

He was led to the back of the long queue of men against the wall, while Daniel was directed to the guest audience section in the centre of the room. Moments later, the door opened again.

Jack had never seen anyone look simultaneously so angry and so beautiful.

Sam was hurried to the back of the women's line, and as she took in the situation, her eyes quickly found his across the room.

 _Sorry_ , he mouthed.

She just shrugged uncomfortably, and crossed her arms across her bare stomach.

They were obviously the last to arrive, as mere seconds after Sam's entry, the ceremony began, with a deep reverberating chime of a gong. In turn, each couple were called forward, and the officiator would murmur some words, and press the couple's bracelet-adorned wrists together, before releasing them and sending them off to a side room to the applause and cheers of the spectators.

Jack wondered uncomfortably what happened in the side room. This could get awkward.

As the officiator's performed functions with each couple were short, the lines quickly moved up, and it wasn't long before only Jack and Sam were left.

"General Jack O'Neill, and Colonel Samantha Carter, our visitors from Earth."

Jack caught Sam's gaze and tried to look reassuring as he walked towards her, until they met in the middle at the officiator in the front and centre of the room.

"Hi." He offered with a wry smirk.

"Hi." She chuckled, ducking her head prettily. With a herculean effort Jack kept his gaze at her eye level rather than drifting down to wear the miniscule yellow silk bikini hugged her breasts and – _damn it_. His eyes snapped back up, but she didn't look mad. More … _amused._ He wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Please give me your wrists." The officiator instructed softly.

He lifted his right arm as Sam lifted her left, and the officiator took them and pressed an inset bit of blue-coloured crystal on Jack's against a similar red-coloured crystal on Sam's. They slotted together like a key fitting a lock, and the officiator held them there for a moment.

"May your hearts beat as one and your souls find harmonious accord." He murmured, and then released them. "Please proceed to the adjoining room."

Jack quirked an eyebrow at Sam, shrugged and walked with her back to the door at the edge of the room. It was opened for them as they approached, and beyond, couples sat and talked and kissed throughout a lushly appointed room, with attendants in the plain tunic and pants outfits wandering around, talking and answering questions.

"Feel anything?" Jack asked Sam in an undertone as he scoped out the room.

"I don't think so?" She answered uncertainly. He glanced at her, and felt a familiar spark of attraction, intensified by her skimpy outfit. He looked away quickly, but she grabbed his arm.

"Wait … I felt something then."

"Felt what?" He looked back at her, and found her studying his arm where she held it.

"Don't you feel that?" She said, glancing up to meet his eyes. "I'm holding your arm, and I can feel my hand holding your arm, but I can also feel _your arm_ being held."

Jack blinked and shook his head in confusion. "What?"

"And just now, when you looked at me, I felt … something. And I'm sure it came from you rather than me."

Jack closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Sir?"

"Gimme a minute." He muttered. Then, he felt it. He felt _her_. She was like an extension of himself, like an extra limb he hadn't realised was missing.

"Ow!" He exclaimed suddenly and opened his eyes, to find Sam grinning at him. She had the skin of her own arm pinched between a thumb and forefinger.

"Ok, yeah, I feel it." He conceded. "So this is what Daniel meant by a 'bond'?"

"Apparently." Sam said, lifting her bracelet to eye level. "I'd love to know how it works."

Jack eyed the couples around the room, most of them touching and kissing, and wondered how that would feel. Sam cleared her throat.

"You can't read my mind, can you?" Jack asked her, suddenly alarmed.

"No, but I can feel your … _mood_ , I guess. As well as every physiological stimulus."

Jack felt a wave of embarrassment, and honestly couldn't tell whether it was his own, or whether it came from Sam.

"Well, Daniel said we can get them taken off, so …" He glanced around the room, looking for a free attendant.

"Maybe we should give it a little while, sir." Sam suggested. He looked at her askance. "We don't want to offend them." She said reasonably.

Jack sighed. "Fine, but you better hope neither of us need to use the bathroom any time soon."

"Oh god." She groaned, and that time he was certain the flush of embarrassment was hers. He went to pat her shoulder reassuringly, but stopped abruptly, discomfited by both the alluring feel of her bare warm skin under his hand, and the shadowy feeling of Sam's shoulder being patted.

"That's really weird." He muttered.

She gave him a strained smile. "No kidding."

He sighed again. "Ok. Let's find somewhere to sit and wait."

* * *

Daniel paced in the friends and family reception area for the courting ceremony, waiting for Governor Josen to reappear. It had been over an hour since the ceremony, and so far he hadn't had a satisfactory answer about what exactly Jack and Sam had been faced with in the room adjoining the ceremony hall.

"Dr Jackson?" Daniel spun around at Josen's call, and hurried towards the governor.

"Governor, may I ask what's happening now, and how long it will be?" He asked, trying to inject a suitable level of politeness into his aura of urgency.

"We have found it is best to allow the newly bonded couples some time to explore the connection before they return to their guests." Josen said with a knowing smile. "It is a very intimate experience and things often become … heated, immediately afterwards."

Daniel felt some of the colour drain from his face. This could either be very good, or very _very_ bad.

"I don't suppose you know how things are going between my friends?" He asked with a wince.

"I'm told they have not yet left the communal area, although many couples have now left to make use of the adjoining private rooms." Josen looked vaguely concerned. "It is possible they were not compatible. If a couple is profoundly incompatible, sometimes the bonding does not succeed at all."

"I doubt that's the problem." Daniel said. More likely they were still resisting whatever it was they felt. Old habits died hard.

"Well, either way, we do not usually open the doors to release the couples into this area until two hours after the ceremony, so you have a little time to wait yet."

* * *

Jack tapped his thigh rhythmically as he watched another couple peel off into one of the smaller private rooms. Including himself and Sam, there were only three couples left in the room.

"Can you stop?" Sam asked suddenly, looking strained.

He looked at her in confusion for a moment, and she looked pointedly at his fingers tapping his thigh. He withdrew his hand quickly.

"Sorry."

She gave him a quick, tight smile and let out a long, deep breath.

Jack had been very carefully ignoring the phantom sensations and feelings he was picking up from Sam, but now he took a moment to tune back in. She was tense.

"You alright, Carter?"

"I'm fine, sir."

"You don't _feel_ fine."

She almost rolled her eyes. She stopped herself, but he still felt the intent. "That's hardly fair, sir."

"Sam, in light of our current predicament, do you think you could lose the 'sir'?"

She gave him a calculated look, and with a shock he felt vulnerable. Or rather, he felt _Sam_ feeling vulnerable.

"I won't bite." It was meant as a light-hearted comment to put her at ease, but his tone was heavier and betrayed more than he had intended to reveal.

"I know." She said. But she was still uncertain.

"Maybe we shouldn't talk." He said, wanting to put them both back on safer ground before this got out of hand. They were so used to leaving what they felt safely hidden between the lines of what they said, but now, with these damn bracelets, everything that usually lurked between the lines of their conversations was being laid bare.

Unfortunately, she didn't seem to take the suggestion in the spirit it was intended, and he felt a flash of hurt from her before she nodded tightly and whispered "Ok."

"I just meant …"

"I know. I get it." She assured him quickly, but he didn't think she did.

He looked at her then, properly. The scrutiny made her look up and meet his eyes. Her expression was carefully blank, but he felt a storm of feeling from her through the bracelet. He took a deep breath, and reminded himself that he'd promised Daniel he'd be honest with her, and there was no time like the present.

"I'm not good at this part." He started. "I never have been. Sara always complained that I didn't know how to talk about my feelings, or hers."

Sam's mouth dropped open a little in surprise. "It's not exactly my strong suit either." She offered.

"I've been telling myself that I was giving you space after your Dad, and … and everything. And I've been telling myself that because of our respective _ranks_ , it would be better if … you know …"

"You were waiting for me to make the first move." Sam realised.

Jack canted his head in acknowledgement. He felt a warm wave of relief, and looked at her in surprise. She ducked her head in embarrassment at being caught in the feeling, and then gave him a rueful smile.

"I was … I was afraid you didn't feel that way about me, anymore." She admitted.

"That's what Daniel said." Jack said, irritated that Daniel had seen something that he himself hadn't.

"You talked to Daniel about this?" She asked, surprised.

"More like he talked to me."

"So … you do still have those … feelings?" Sam asked hesitantly.

Jack took a deep breath, and then looked into her deep blue eyes, and concentrated. He thought about her smile, and the way her eyes lit up when she was excited about some alien doohickey, and the way she laughed at his lame jokes. He thought about the way she could take a man twice her size in hand to hand, and precision shoot a moving target at incredible range. And then he forced himself to think about the way he had felt over the years on the myriad of awful occasions when he thought he might have lost her.

She gasped, and her eyes swam. "I'll take that as a yes." She breathed.

"Maybe we should keep these." He mused in a low voice, running a finger along Sam's bracelet. "No more misunderstandings."

"They do have a certain sort of appeal." She said. Her eyes sparkled and flickered to the various closed doors around the room. "They all seem to think so, too."

He gaped a little at the suggestion, and her boldness. "Carter?" He squeaked, and then cleared his throat and tried again, perhaps overcompensating with bass. "Carter?"

She licked her lips and her gaze roved slowly over his chest before meeting his again, and he felt a slow, rolling, tingling desire coming from her that awakened all sorts of wonderful answering sensations in his groin. "Jack?" She said with an impish smile.

It was like every fantasy he'd ever entertained was coming true at once.

"Oh, we are _so_ keeping these." Jack breathed like a prayer, and reached a hand up to tangle in her hair, pulling her close, and kissing her.

* * *

Daniel stood up as the door to the waiting room was finally opened, and paired couples of men and women in the yellow and white outfits poured in to the applause of the guests. All of the couples were rather … clingy, and affectionate. He craned his neck to see over the heads of the crowd to look for Jack and Sam.

Sam saw him first, and caught his attention with a wave, before cutting a path through the group towards him, Jack following in her wake. He realised with a start that they were holding hands.

"Are you guys alright?" Daniel asked.

" _Oh_ yeah." Jack said, actually grinning. "Never been better."

Sam rolled her eyes, and Daniel stared at them both in shock.

"We're fine." Sam told him. "But we should probably get these bracelets taken off now before we leave."

"Sure." Daniel said slowly. "So … the bonding thing worked?"

"Did it ever." Jack said. "Do you think they'll let us keep the bracelets to use some other time?"

"Uh …"

"We don't even know if we can activate or remove them anywhere but here." Sam pointed out to Jack in a practical tone. "It might be that it requires some special piece of technology, like that panel they had us touch before the ceremony when they first gave us the bracelets. And really, if we take them home, you know they'll just be confiscated to be studied at Area 51."

"But you _run_ R &D at Area 51." Jack argued.

"And so I'm uniquely qualified to know _exactly_ how impossible it would be to liberate them from the facility for recreational use." Sam said with a smile.

"Killjoy." Jack growled, but it was tempered with an affectionate look.

Daniel cleared his throat awkwardly. "So I take it you guys are … um …?"

"Put it this way," Jack said, "You won't be yelling at me for calling you too much anymore."

"And you don't need to hatch any more plans to trap us alone in a small room for six hours." Sam added.

"Although I certainly wouldn't argue about it now, if the room happened to contain a bed." Jack said, waggling his eyebrows at Sam, who just rolled her eyes and blushed.

"Ok, too much information." Daniel said, wincing and raising a hand to make them stop.

"What's the matter, Daniel?" Jack said, looping his arm casually over Sam's mostly-bare shoulders. "Regretting your fiendish plan?"

Sam leaned into Jack and put her hand on his chest, batting her eyelashes at Daniel coyly. "Should we have told you to be careful what you wished for?"

Daniel gaped, stupefied, for a moment, before slapping a hand to his face. "You're messing with me." He accused petulantly.

Sam laughed and backed off, Jack removing his arm from around her and patting Daniel on the shoulder instead. "In all seriousness, Daniel, we're grateful for the push."

"So you really are together now?" He checked.

"Yes." Sam answered for the both of them, smiling softly at Jack. "We are."


	6. Beginning 5

**Beginning 5**

 **Summary:** This is a series of one-shots, depicting my various imaginings of the ways Sam  & Jack's relationship could have started, post-Threads.  
 **Disclaimer:** I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.

* * *

Sam woke to the dry, cool air and droning hum of the air conditioning unit. She groaned and turned her face into the pillow, before lifting her head a little to look at her alarm clock.

It read 05:58. Time to get up.

She turned off the alarm before it could go off at 0600, and sat up, stretched, and turned her face up into the sunlight streaming through the gap in her curtains.

At 0600, her cell chimed with an incoming text from Cassie:

 _Happy birthday! xxx_

Sam smiled, and texted back:

 _Thanks, hon. See you later x_

She had plans to have dinner with Cassie that evening after work. Sam had mixed feelings about this birthday. Of course, there was the usual disgruntlement about getting older, but it was also the first birthday she'd had in eight years that she wouldn't spend with SG-1. They'd been scattered to the wind, with her in Nevada, Jack in Washington DC, Daniel still in Colorado Springs but poised to leave for another galaxy within the month, and Teal'c on Dakara.

On the other hand, Cassie was doing so much better lately, and she couldn't think of a better way to celebrate that than to have a wonderful birthday dinner with her surrogate daughter at the frankly fabulous restaurant for which Cassie had somehow managed to score a reservation.

She got showered, dressed, and was just about to make some pancakes – it _was_ her birthday after all – when her doorbell rang. She looked at her watch, frowning. It wasn't even 0700 yet.

She opened her door to a young man in a delivery company uniform, who handed her a large, heavy box with her name and address on the label, asking her to sign for it. She had just taken the electronic pen from him, when something caught her eye over his shoulder.

"What the hell …?" She pushed past him out onto her porch steps, and stopped short, staring in shock.

Because there, spit-polish clean and gleaming in the early morning sun, was her pride and joy, her olive-green classic Volvo. The very same Volvo, that she had broken-heartedly left behind in Colorado Springs when it had broken down the evening before she had planned to drive it cross-country to her new life in Nevada. As far as she knew, it had been sitting untouched in a dark garage in the Springs ever since.

Except, apparently not.

She beamed, wondering which of her wonderful friends was responsible for this. Her money was on Daniel – he was the closest friend she still had in Colorado Springs.

"Uh, ma'am?" The delivery guy appeared at her elbow, and she distractedly signed for the parcel quickly, before returning her full attention to her beloved car.

It had a big white bow on the hood, with an envelope underneath that said simply, 'Sam'. She tore open the envelope, expecting it to reveal the identity of the angel who had sent her car, but instead it was a simple birthday card, inside which in printed text were the words 'What am I?'.

She looked between the car and the card in bemused confusion. " _'What am I?'_ " She read aloud. Unsurprisingly it didn't make any more sense out loud than it had on the page.

She shrugged and brought the card back inside, pushing the large package against the wall inside the door and leaving the mysterious card on top. She quickly grabbed her shoes, keys and purse, and went out to check the condition of her car. It didn't take long to figure out that it had been fixed as well as transported and cleaned, and so she happily climbed into the driver's seat, intent on giving it a spin on the long, empty Nevada highways before getting into work that morning. If she left now, she'd have time enough.

* * *

"Lieutenant, would you come in here please?" Sam called.

She was standing just inside her office door, staring at her desk. Her office was not cluttered, in fact it was incredibly spartan, in part because she hadn't had it for very long, and in part because the security at Area 51's Research and Development department was even tighter in some ways than that of the SGC. Employees and visitors to the department couldn't even bring in their street clothes, much less personal effects. She wore the same tan jumpsuit as every other employee, with her name and rank sewn on.

Lieutenant Robins appeared at her elbow. "Colonel?"

"What is that?" Sam asked.

Robins followed the direction of Sam's gaze, and cautiously approached the blue, box-like object on Sam's desk, as though it was a bomb that might spontaneously explode.

"It looks like a mini-fridge, Ma'am."

"Where did it come from?" Sam asked, perplexed.

Robins looked at her, confused. "You didn't bring it in, Ma'am?"

"Of course not." Sam said dismissively. "So you didn't see anyone bring it in here?"

"No one has been in your office since I got in this morning, Colonel, and it was locked overnight."

"You're sure about that?"

"It has a bow and a card stuck to it, Ma'am, if that helps." Robins said, and Sam frowned and walked around to the other side of the desk, and saw that it did indeed have a bow and card taped to the front.

"Thank you Robins." She said, dismissing the young man.

"Yes Ma'am. Ah … happy birthday, Colonel." Robins saluted and shut her office door behind him on his way out.

Sam sat down at her desk, and pulled the bow and card off the mini-fridge. It was the same style of birthday card as the one that had been on her car that morning, and inside was the same printed three word question – 'What am I?'

"What are you indeed?" Sam muttered.

On a quest to figure out why on Earth someone would go to the lengths of somehow getting this bewildering item into arguably the most impenetrable facility in the country, Sam opened it, and found it stocked full of blue jello. She couldn't help it, she laughed.

And, it sparked an idea as to who may be behind it. There was only one man with both the ability to get it past security into her office, and the sense of humour to want to try.

* * *

"I'm sorry Colonel, he's not available."

"He can't _still_ be in that meeting?" Sam asked.

"I'm afraid so, Colonel. Should I leave a message?"

"Would you just let him know that I called and ask him to call me back when he's free?"

"Of course, Colonel."

"Thank you." Sam hung up the phone. It was weird – General O'Neill's cell was switched off, and according to his secretary, he'd been stuck in the same meeting for the entire day. She was a little worried about what that meant, given that her new role as head of R&D had her out of the loop in as far as potential SGC catastrophes went. Though she had to believe that he'd call her if something big was going down.

She resigned herself to being left in the dark about the car and the jello for the time-being. Daniel, whom she had spoken to on the phone on her lunch break, claimed complete ignorance.

It was the end of her working day, and she certainly wasn't going to put in overtime on her birthday, so Sam locked up her office with a cheerful goodnight to her assistant, and hit the road. The purr of the Volvo warmed her heart once again, despite its lack of air con in the hot May weather.

Back home, she almost tripped over the parcel that had been delivered earlier that morning on her way in through the door. She'd forgotten about it in her excitement over the car and puzzlement over the mini-fridge of blue jello. She pulled a penknife from her pocked and slit it open. Inside, amid a sea of packing peanuts, was a familiar, care-worn telescope. Jack's telescope.

She grinned, standing it up on its tripod, and removing the taped note from one of the legs.

"What am I?" She read. Of course.

This note had another side, however.

 _Hey Carter._

 _Happy birthday._

 _This is a loaner – it's no good to me in DC with all the light pollution, but maybe you can make some use of it out in the Nevada desert._

 _Jack_

He'd signed it Jack. It made her heart skip a little. They hadn't talked – not properly – since her reassignment to Groom Lake, but what interactions they had managed to have, had been freer, and friendlier, in a way that made her hopeful for the potential of important progressions in their relationship the next time they did see each other face to face.

The telescope was beautiful. She'd always admired it, whenever she'd seen it up on his roof in the Springs. He'd told her once it had been a gift from his grandfather, and she knew it was a precious possession of his. She would treasure it and keep it safe for him.

She wished she'd been able to get him on the phone. The 'What am I' riddle was driving her to distraction.

Her car, a mini-fridge full of blue jello, and a telescope. There had to be a connection, but she didn't see it.

An hour later, Cassie was at her door in heels and a sundress, with a very long, thin box under one arm and a wide and flat box under the other.

"Happy birthday!" The nineteen-year-old greeted her, letting Sam divest her of the more awkward of the two packages.

"Thanks Cassie. I hope these aren't both from you!"

"No, that one's Jack." Cassie said, nodding to the long thin box that Sam had taken from her.

Sam looked at her in surprise. "Seriously? Another one?"

Cassie grinned. "Got the others, did you?"

"You know about them!" Sam exclaimed. "Do you know what the riddle is about?"

"You mean the 'What am I' thing?"

"Yes!"

"Sorry, I've been sworn to secrecy." Cassie said, winking.

Sam huffed. "Fine. But he picked a really bad time to be stuck in a meeting all day."

Cassie chuckled at that, but passed her the other package rather than commenting further. "Open this one first, it's from me."

Sam took the box and gave Cassie a kiss on the cheek as thanks. She opened it at her kitchen table – it was an evening dress, knee length and clingy but tastefully cut in beautiful black material.

"Cass, you shouldn't have. It's beautiful."

"Wear it tonight?" Cassie asked, looking hopeful. The restaurant they were booked at was classy enough that she wouldn't look overdressed, so Sam agreed with a smile.

She took Jack's gift into the living room to open it, while Cassie looked reverently at the telescope.

"I can't believe he gave this to you." She commented.

"He didn't _give_ it to me. He's just loaning it to me while he's in DC." Sam corrected.

"So you're _borrowing_ it?" Cassie asked, twirling the end of a curl of hair and trying a little too hard to look innocent.

"I guess … what's your point?"

"No point. Open that one." Cassie said, deflecting with an easy grin. Sam rolled her eyes but was too curious about the latest package to push it.

She opened the box, and pulled out a brand new fishing rod.

"I guess he wants you to go up to his cabin again some time." Cassie said.

Sam grinned. "I guess so."

"What's that?" Cassie leaned forward and grabbed a card out of the discarded packaging. She held it up for Sam to see.

 _What am I?_

"I don't know!" Sam exclaimed. "It's a fishing rod. That's a telescope, this morning it was my car, and there was a mini-fridge of jello in my office."

"So … how else might you describe those things?" Cassie prodded.

"I don't _know_. Riddles were always Daniel's thing. I really haven't the faintest idea what he's getting at with all of this."

Cassie looked disappointed.

"You could just tell me …" Sam wheedled.

"Absolutely not. You'll have to ask Jack the next time you talk to him." Cassie said.

Sam sighed. "Fine. I'll try his cell again, maybe he's out of that meeting by now."

"Do it after we get to the restaurant, you have to get changed now or we'll be late."

* * *

Cassie had insisted on driving, as she said she wanted Sam to feel free to have a glass or two of wine with her dinner, since it was her birthday. She dropped Sam at the door of the restaurant, and told her to go and claim their table while she parked the car.

The restaurant was comfortably quiet, with a hum of low conversation and jazz playing in the background. Sam gave Cassie's name to the maitre d', and was led through the restaurant to a table in the corner – a table for two, already occupied by none other than Major General Jack O'Neill.

He stood up with an easy smile as she approached, and chuckled at her passable impression of a goldfish.

"Cassie sends her regrets, and hopes you'll accept me as company in her place." He said, dismissing the maitre d' and pulling out a chair for Sam. She was too shocked at his sudden appearance and the apparent sneakiness of her goddaughter to object to the chivalrous gesture.

"Your secretary kept telling me all day you were in a meeting." She said as she sat down.

"I told her to say that." He admitted.

"No kidding." Sam chuckled. "I was getting worried that there was some crisis at the mountain."

"Nah, I'd have called you for that." Jack said. "Although, I didn't actually tell her to say there was a day-long secret meeting."

"That may be my fault. I called your office five times between the hours of 0800 and 1800. If you only told her to say you were in a meeting I probably forced her to stretch her cover story somewhat."

"Whoops."

"Yeah." Sam laughed. "So …?"

"So?" He raised an eyebrow.

"To what do I owe the honour, General?"

"Well Carter, how often does a person have a birthday?" Jack said, spreading his hands in an expansive gesture.

"About once a year." Sam answered drily.

"Right, so … ostensibly I'm here to wish you a happy birthday."

"Ostensibly?"

"It means something which is apparently or allegedly true, but is not necessarily the whole truth."

"I know what 'ostensibly' means." Sam said.

Jack's eyes twinkled. He was teasing her.

"So what's the whole truth?" Sam asked.

Jack looked away, dodging the question. "Get any good gifts this birthday?" He asked.

Sam grinned at him. "You know, funnily enough I did."

"Glad to hear it."

"I'll take good care of the telescope for you. I'm touched you're trusting me with it."

"Aw, Carter, I'd trust you with anything."

She smiled at him. "Actually it was all very touching, the telescope, my car, the fishing rod … and I'd love to know how you got that mini-fridge past security."

"I have my ways." He said mysteriously. "Tell me, did these various and vaunted gifts come with any … cards?"

"That god damn riddle." Sam said. "Do you have any idea how much that's been bugging me?"

"You haven't figured it out?"

"No!"

"Cassie didn't drop any hints?"

"I don't think so … no wait, she said something odd about me borrowing your telescope, but that didn't really help."

"Maybe this will." Jack said, in a softer tone. He slid his hand across the table top, palm-down, and lifted it to reveal a little silver coin underneath. Sam frowned and picked it up, inspecting it.

"It's a sixpence." Jack supplied. "An old English silver sixpence."

Sam looked up at him. There was something niggling in her memory about that. And he was looking at her with such gentleness, such … such _love_ , that it stole her breath away.

That's when it hit her.

A few months ago, at the painful engagement party Pete had insisted they throw, Sam had explained to Teal'c – in the presence of Jack and Daniel – about the tradition of a bride wearing something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Her mother had told her that it came from an old English superstition, a rhyme that literally went:

 _Something old  
Something new  
Something borrowed  
Something blue  
And a silver sixpence in her shoe_

Something old – her old Volvo, something new – the fishing rod, something _borrowed_ – the telescope, and something blue …

"The blue jello in the blue mini-fridge!" Sam burst out laughing.

Jack looked in part mildly alarmed at her reaction and pleased she'd worked it out.

"I'm sorry, it's just … you know the rhyme is supposed to be about things a bride wears on her wedding day?" Sam said, still chuckling.

"I know," Jack said defensively, "I just figured, I'd alter it a little so I could get you stuff you actually wanted."

 _Oh … wait …_

"Jack, you're not …" She trailed off, a little awestruck.

"See, the thing is, I figure we've basically been subconsciously dating for the last eight years. I know you better than I even knew Sara after a couple years of being _married_ to her. And … well …" he grimaced as he fumbled for words, and instead leaned forward across the table, taking Sam's hand.

"I love you. I'm pretty damn sure you feel the same way about me, and I'm done waiting." He said finally. "So, this is me, Jack O'Neill, asking you, Sam Carter, to marry me."

 _Holy Hannah._

"Yes." She breathed.

Jack blinked. "Yes?"

"Yes." She grinned, leaned forward a little further, and kissed his surprised, wonderful mouth. It only took him a second or two to catch up and kiss her back, and when he did, it made her melt.

A polite cough interrupted her new world of bliss. A waiter was hovering. Jack pulled back a scant inch and glared at him. "Yes?"

"May I take your drink order sir, madam?"

Sam grinned ruefully at Jack, and sat back. Perhaps making out wasn't really an option in the best restaurant in town.

But, it sure was nice to have it to look forward to.


End file.
